It’s January 2024 so here I am, now over 5 years since fully retiring.
My first comment would have to be; “where has the time gone?”
The answer of course is I just don’t know! They say that when you want something doing then ask a busy person. So I suppose I must have been busy. The time has just flown and this is worrying. They say that life is short so I make the most of every day. But of course the last few years have been extraordinary. Both my wife Lynne and I had succumbed to the C virus in March 2020 and very poorly we were too and confined to bed with severe classic symptoms. We both had extremely bad chests and coughs and high temperatures but happily not serious enough to be hospitalised. Gladly also no loss of taste or smell. Since then we have of course now had our 4 Covid jabs. And added to this I underwent major open heart surgery in July of 2020 with the replacement of the main aortic valve. Happily all went really well and I made a very quick full recovery.
During Covid Lynne was in the middle of writing her book: “Shedding The Shackles: Women’s Empowerment Through Craft ” and despite us not being able to travel to research for the book, managed to complete it with the considerable help of emails, Zoom meetings and numerous other sources. The book was published by Bloomsbury in May 2021.*
So why is time just flying by? I get up early (7.30 ish as always), have my porridge for breakfast and read the daily paper from cover to cover. After that I have no idea how the hours disappear. I have a couple of Zoom (which must be the most major positive to come out of the pandemic) meetings, a couple of online bridge games – another huge positive. However with so many people playing online the usual sites often ‘crash’. So we spend a lot of time logging in and out. My, haven’t we got used to a whole new world of technology and language? I have bookcases full of books I want to read now I have the time. But where’s the time? I try to read a chapter or two in bed but fall asleep after a few lines! And friends keep on recommending more books to read. Panic now setting in. Then there’s TV. BBC serialised dramas, Netflix, Apple TV and so on and so on. But where’s the time? After dinner it can be 9 before we’re cleared up and ready to turn on the telly. And I need to get to bed early enough to read a little before I fall asleep. So where’s the time? Oh, and I want to play the piano and practice a few pieces to accompany Lynne on her cello. Since my surgery I need to exercise and do a daily walk and keep up my cycling and swimming. Now we can even go ‘wild swimming’ – just hope that the lakes and rivers get cleaned up.
So now I am sitting at my computer typing these few words. Today Apple have released a new operating system called Ventura. Well that’s another hour spent setting it all up and then discovering things which had previously worked now don’t or do funny things. And then another hour on the phone to Apple support for help. Technology! Could have written this whole piece on a sheet of A4 but it would have taken much longer and no spell chekker! Even then how would you have all been able to read it? Photocopy (what’s that?) and post it to each of you? Really. Did we used to do that. But then maybe we had the time. So I am coming to realise that my shortage of time may actually be something to do with all this clever technology that’s supposed to be saving us time. My conclusion- it doesn’t.
Must go now as I have 1248 images from my camera that need downloading on to my computer from my camera. Then they have to be sorted, edited and of course backed up so that if my computer fails I will have a safe copy. Now where is that box of photos in paper folders from Boots that I put at the top of the wardrobe? At least I can look at them when the computer packs up. If I have time. Happy days!
*Lynne’s book : “Shedding The Shackles: Women’s Empowerment Through Craft” is published by Bloomsbury and is now available from Bloomsbury, Waterstones and Amazon.